Cup-Marked Stone (missing): OS Grid Reference – ND 04321 56794
Archaeology & History
When Alastair MacLaren (1955) first excavated an Iron Age hut circle just above the northern edge of Loch Shurrery, he found, “from the tumble of the wall came a cup marked stone.” It emerged from southwestern side of this habitation site, on a small portable-sized stone, and consisted of just a single distinct cup-mark. When the site came to be re-examined many years later, it had gone. MacLaren was of the opinion that the stone had merely “served as core material and was of no other significance to the builders of the hut circle than just a handy bit of rubble to fill the space between the inner and outer faces.” This may have been the case; although it may have originally been carried from one of the many chambered cairns in the region.
References:
- MacLaren, Alistair, “Caithness: Loch Shurrery,” in Discovery & Excavation, Scotland, 1955.
- MacLaren, Alistair, A Later Prehistoric House and Early Medieval buildings in Northern Scotland, Society of Antiquaries Scotland: Edinburgh 2003.
© Paul Bennett, The Northern Antiquarian